Pre-sewn distressed applique

ABSTRACT

Exemplary appliques and methods of making the same are disclosed. An exemplary applique may include an adhesive layer having a first contour, and at least one fabric layer defining a second contour. The first contour may be inset from the second contour, with the second contour defining an outer perimeter of the applique. Exemplary appliques may further include a stitching securing the fabric layer to the adhesive layer along a third contour, where the third contour is inset from the first contour. Exemplary methods of making an applique may facilitate creation of a distressed outer edge of the applique.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 61/699,633, filed on Sep. 11, 2012, the contents of which are herebyexpressly incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Known methods of creating a distressed applique for applying to agarment include stitching one or more fabric layers directly to thegarment. Stitching or embroidering the fabric layer(s) to the garmentallows an outer edge of the fabric layer(s) to fray or otherwise becomedistressed, which is a desirable feature for some applications. However,the process of stitching or embroidering a fabric layer or applique to agarment is time-consuming and may be difficult for novice users.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved applique and method ofmaking the same that addresses the above problems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

While the claims are not limited to the illustrated embodiments, anappreciation of various aspects is best gained through a discussion ofvarious examples thereof. Referring now to the drawings, illustrativeembodiments are shown in detail. Although the drawings represent theembodiments, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certainfeatures may be exaggerated to better illustrate and explain aninnovative aspect of an embodiment. Further, the embodiments describedherein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limiting orrestricting to the precise form and configuration shown in the drawingsand disclosed in the following detailed description. Exemplaryembodiments of the present invention are described in detail byreferring to the drawings as follows.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an exemplary distressed applique

FIG. 2 is a rear view of the exemplary distressed applique of FIG, 1;and

FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram for an exemplary method of making anapplique,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, illustrative embodiments are shown indetail. Although the drawings represent the embodiments, the drawingsare not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated tobetter illustrate and explain an innovative aspect of an embodiment.Further, the embodiments described herein are not intended to beexhaustive or otherwise limit or restrict the invention to the preciseform and configuration shown in the drawings and disclosed in thefollowing detailed description.

Exemplary methods of making an applique may include scoring an adhesivelayer along a first contour that is inset from a second contour, wherethe second contour defines an outer perimeter of a desired applique. Themethods may further include applying at least one layer of fabric on topof the scored adhesive, and stitching the fabric layer to the adhesivelayer along a third contour, The third contour may be inset from thefirst contour. Exemplary methods may further include cutting the fabriclayer along the second contour, and removing the finished applique andassociated adhesive from remaining portions of the fabric layer.

An exemplary applique may include an adhesive layer having a firstcontour, and at least one fabric layer defining a second contour. Thefirst contour may be inset from the second contour, with the secondcontour defining an outer perimeter of the applique. Exemplary appliquesmay further include a stitching securing the fabric layer to theadhesive layer along a third contour, where the third contour is insetfrom the first contour. An outer edge of the applique may be frayed ordistressed, and creation of the distressed edge may be facilitated byexemplary methods described further below.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an exemplary applique 100 is illustratedthat includes one or more layers of fabric 102 which are sewn togetherin conjunction with a permanent adhesive 104, and then cut into anappliqué shape, such as a letter or number, in a manner that causesvisible distressing of the fabric 102. The adhesive 104 may be heatactivated to allow securement to a garment, and once heat applied to agarment gives the appearance of the applique 100 being directly sewn tothe garment. The applique 100 may further comprise an embroidery orstitching 106. In contrast to previous approaches to making an appliquehaving a distressed appearance, the applique 100 need not be stitched orembroidered directly to the garment. Rather, the applique 100 may besecured to a garment using the adhesive 104. Nevertheless, a distressedor frayed outer contour of the applique 100 is still created, e.g., aswill be described further below.

Accordingly, the applique 100 generally gives an appearance of theappliqué 100 being directly sewn to a garment without requiring the useof embroidery or stitching to secure the applique 100 to the garment.Rather, the applique 100 may be permanently adhered to a garment by wayof the adhesive layer 104. As will be described further below, theadhesive layer 104 may be trimmed back from the fabric layer(s) 102 ofthe applique 100, allowing the fabric layer(s) 102 to fray and distressnaturally even after the applique is applied to the garment. Exemplaryappliques 100 may be secured to a garment relatively quickly, especiallycompared with previous approaches to securing a distressed applique thatrequire stitching or embroidering the applique directly to a garment.Moreover, there is no limitation to the number or color of fabrics thatmay be employed as part of the fabric layer 102, and as such a widevariety of combinations of fabrics and colors may be used in theapplique 100.

As best seen in FIG. 2, the adhesive layer 104 is applied to a backsideof the fabric layer(s) 102, and is trimmed back from an outer contour102′ of the fabric layer 102. The fabric layer 102 and adhesive layer104 may be held together by way of the stitching 106. The stitching 106may be positioned inwardly with respect to the outer contour 102′ of thefabric layer 102, as well as an outer contour 104′ of the adhesive layer104. Accordingly, the stitching 106 defines an outer contour 106′ thatis positioned within the outer contour 104′ of the adhesive as well asthe outer contour 102′ of the fabric layer(s) 102. By positioning theadhesive layer 104 within the outer contour 102′ of the fabric layer102, the fabric layer 102 may be cut such that the outer contour 102′ isdistressed, or is subsequently allowed to become frayed or distressed,even after application of the applique 100 to a garment (not shown). Thepositioning of the outer contour 104′ of the adhesive 104 within theouter contour 102′ of the fabric layer(s) 102 generally allows thefabric layer 102 to be unsupported by the adhesive layer 104, so thatthe outer edge of the fabric layer(s) 102 may fray or otherwise becomedistressed.

Turning now to FIG. 3, an exemplary process 300 of making an applique isdisclosed. Process 300 may begin at block 302, where an adhesive layeris provided. In one exemplary approach, an adhesive layer 104 such as apolyester adhesive is clamped in a large frame in a manner that causesit to be generally taut in all directions.

Proceeding to block 304, a cutting device, e.g., a laser, is used toscore the adhesive layer 104 with a vector contour corresponding to theouter contour 104′ of the adhesive layer 104. The vector contour can beprovided from a vector software package such as Corel Draw, merely asone example. This “scoring” contour may be “inset” a distance from andsubstantially parallel to the “original artwork's” vector contour, i.e.,the outer contour 102′ of the fabric layer(s) 102, which corresponds toan outer contour of the finished applique 100. The resulting scoredcontour is therefore smaller than the final appliqué 100. Process 300may then proceed to block 306.

At block 306, one or more layers 102 of a fabric, e.g., a chino twill ort-shirt material, merely as examples, may be laid directly on top of thescored adhesive layer 104, completely covering the scored area of theadhesive 104. In other words, the fabric layers 102 extend beyond thescored contour of the adhesive layer 104, e.g., as illustrated in FIG.2.

Proceeding to block 308, the fabric layer(s) may be stitched orembroidered to the adhesive layer 104, e.g., with a stitching 106 asillustrated in FIG. 2. In one example, automated embroidery equipmentsuch as Tajima equipment may be employed to sew a different contour thatis inset a predetermined distance from and parallel to the “originalartwork's” vector contour, i.e., the outer contour of the finishedapplique 100. Moreover, the outer contour 106′ of the embroidery orstitching 106 may be inset with respect to the contour 104′ of theadhesive 104. Accordingly, the sewing causes the fabric layer(s) 102 tobe sewn together along with the scored adhesive layer 104. In exampleswhere multiple layers of fabric are being employed, the sewing operationalso joins the multiple layers of fabric together. Process 300 may thenproceed to block 310.

At block 310, a cutting device may cut the “original artwork's” vectorcontour, i.e., the outer contour 102′ of the fabric layer(s) 102 and/orthe finished applique 100, from the fabric layer(s) 102. In one example,the cutting process cuts through the fabric layer(s), but does not cutthrough the adhesive layer underlying the fabric layer(s).

Proceeding to block 312, the finished appliqué 100 is removed byseparating the fabric layer(s) 102 from the remaining “scrap” portionsof fabric in a manner that causes the fabric to fray and appeardistressed about the outer contour 102′ of the fabric layer(s) 102and/or the applique 100. Additionally, since the finished appliqué'sfabric layer(s) were sewn to the scored adhesive layer, when theappliqué 100 is removed, the scored adhesive layer 104 separates alongthe scored contours 104′, resulting in the portion of the adhesive 104defined by the adhesive contour 104′ to be removed and attached to thefinished appliqué 100. Moreover, since the cutting of the fabriclayer(s) 102, e.g., as described above in block 310, does not cutthrough the adhesive layer 104, the scrap adhesive layer remaining aboutthe outer contour 104′ of the adhesive layer is also pulled away fromthe applique 100 as it is removed along the outer contour 102′ of thefabric layer 102.

The applique 100 may be subsequently secured to a garment, e.g., a shirtor sweatshirt, merely as examples. More specifically, the applique 100may be secured to a garment by way of the adhesive 104, which may be aheat-activated adhesive. Accordingly, the applique 100 may have theappearance of being stitched or embroidered to the garment, while notrequiring the applique 100 to be stitched or embroidered directly to thegarment itself. Process 300 may then terminate.

In some exemplary approaches, the exemplary methods described herein mayemploy a computer or a computer readable storage medium implementing thevarious methods and processes described herein, e.g., process 400. Ingeneral, computing systems and/or devices, such as the processor and theuser input device, may employ any of a number of computer operatingsystems, including, but by no means limited to, versions and/orvarieties of the Microsoft Windows® operating system, the Unix operatingsystem (e.g., the Solaris® operating system distributed by OracleCorporation of Redwood Shores, Calif.), the AIX UNIX operating systemdistributed by International Business Machines of Armonk, N.Y., theLinux operating system, the Mac OS X and iOS operating systemsdistributed by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., and the Androidoperating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance.

Computing devices generally include computer-executable instructions,where the instructions may be executable by one or more computingdevices such as those listed above. Computer-executable instructions maybe compiled or interpreted from computer programs created using avariety of programming languages and/or technologies, including, withoutlimitation, and either alone or in combination, Java™, C, C++, VisualBasic, Java Script, Perl, etc. In general, a processor (e.g., amicroprocessor) receives instructions, e.g., from a memory, acomputer-readable medium, etc., and executes these instructions, therebyperforming one or more processes, including one or more of the processesdescribed herein. Such instructions and other data may be stored andtransmitted using a variety of computer-readable media.

A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readablemedium) includes any non-transitory (e.g., tangible) medium thatparticipates in providing data (e.g., instructions) that may be read bya computer (e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may takemany forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media andvolatile media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical ormagnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include,for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typicallyconstitutes a main memory. Such instructions may be transmitted by oneor more transmission media, including coaxial cables, copper wire andfiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled toa processor of a computer. Common forms of computer-readable mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any otheroptical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any othermemory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer canread.

Databases, data repositories or other data stores described herein mayinclude various kinds of mechanisms for storing, accessing, andretrieving various kinds of data, including a hierarchical database, aset of files in a file system, an application database in a proprietaryformat, a relational database management system (RDBMS), etc. Each suchdata store is generally included within a computing device employing acomputer operating system such as one of those mentioned above, and areaccessed via a network in any one or more of a variety of manners. Afile system may be accessible from a computer operating system, and mayinclude files stored in various formats. An RDBMS generally employs theStructured Query Language (SQL) in addition to a language for creating,storing, editing, and executing stored procedures, such as the PL/SQLlanguage mentioned above.

In some examples, system elements may be implemented ascomputer-readable instructions (e.g., software) on one or more computingdevices (e.g., servers, personal computers, etc.), stored on computerreadable media associated therewith (e.g., disks, memories, etc.). Acomputer program product may comprise such instructions stored oncomputer readable media for carrying out the functions described herein.

The exemplary illustrations are not limited to the previously describedexamples. Rather, a plurality of variants and modifications arepossible, which also make use of the ideas of the exemplaryillustrations and therefore fall within the protective scope.Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description isintended to be illustrative and not restrictive.

With regard to the processes, systems, methods, heuristics, etc.described herein, it should be understood that, although the steps ofsuch processes, etc. have been described as occurring according to acertain ordered sequence, such processes could be practiced with thedescribed steps performed in an order other than the order describedherein. It further should be understood that certain steps could beperformed simultaneously, that other steps could be added, or thatcertain steps described herein could be omitted. In other words, thedescriptions of processes herein are provided for the purpose ofillustrating certain embodiments, and should in no way be construed soas to limit the claimed invention.

Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description isintended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many embodiments andapplications other than the examples provided would be upon reading theabove description. The scope of the invention should be determined, notwith reference to the above description, but should instead bedetermined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It isanticipated and intended that future developments will occur in the artsdiscussed herein, and that the disclosed systems and methods will beincorporated into such future embodiments. In sum, it should beunderstood that the invention is capable of modification and variationand is limited only by the following claims.

All terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadestreasonable constructions and their ordinary meanings as understood bythose skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contraryin made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,”“the,” “the,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicatedelements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary.

1. A method of making an applique, comprising: scoring an adhesive layeralong a first contour that is inset from a second contour, the secondcontour defining an outer perimeter of a desired applique; applying atleast one layer of fabric on top of the scored adhesive; stitching thefabric layer to the adhesive layer along a third contour, the thirdcontour inset from the first contour; cutting the fabric layer along thesecond contour; and removing the finished applique and associatedadhesive from remaining portions of the fabric layer.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first contour is substantially parallel to thesecond contour about the outer perimeter.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising fraying the fabric layer along the second contour. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the adhesive layer remains uncut afterthe cutting of the fabric layer along the second contour.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein cutting the fabric layer along the second contourincluding cutting through the fabric layer to a depth corresponding to amaximum depth of the fabric layer.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising securing the applique to a garment.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the adhesive is configured to secure the applique to a garmentby application of heat.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at leastone fabric layer includes at least two fabric layers.
 9. A method ofmaking an applique, comprising: scoring an adhesive layer along a firstcontour that is inset from a second contour, the second contour definingan outer perimeter of a desired applique; applying at least one layer offabric on top of the scored adhesive; stitching the fabric layer to theadhesive layer along a third contour, the third contour inset from thefirst contour; cutting the fabric layer along the second contour,thereby fraying the fabric layer along the second contour; and removingthe finished applique and associated adhesive from remaining portions ofthe fabric layer.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first contouris substantially parallel to the second contour about the outerperimeter.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the adhesive layer remainsuncut after the cutting of the fabric layer along the second contour.12. The method of claim 9, wherein cutting the fabric layer along thesecond contour including cutting through the fabric layer to a depthcorresponding to a maximum depth of the fabric layer.
 13. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising securing the applique to a garment.
 14. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the adhesive is configured to secure theapplique to a garment by application of heat.
 15. The method of claim 9,wherein the at least one fabric layer includes at least two fabriclayers.
 16. An applique, comprising: an adhesive layer having a firstcontour; at least one fabric layer defining a second contour, whereinthe first contour is inset from the second contour, the second contourdefining an outer perimeter of the applique; and a stitching securingthe fabric layer to the adhesive layer along a third contour, the thirdcontour inset from the first contour.
 17. The applique of claim 16,wherein the first contour is substantially parallel to the secondcontour about the outer perimeter.
 18. The applique of claim 16, whereinthe adhesive is configured to secure the applique to a garment byapplication of heat.
 19. The applique of claim 16, wherein the fabriclayer is frayed along the second contour.
 20. The applique of claim 16,wherein the at least one fabric layer includes at least two fabriclayers.